


Mistakes Were Made

by SilenceIsGolden15



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo 2k19 [11]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Begging, Black Paladin Keith (Voltron), Broken Bones, Gen, Humiliation, Hurt Lance (Voltron), Hurt Pidge | Katie Holt, Post-Season/Series 02, Sad Keith (Voltron), Self-Esteem Issues, Shiro (Voltron) is Missing, Team as Family, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-02
Updated: 2020-02-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:54:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22518817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilenceIsGolden15/pseuds/SilenceIsGolden15
Summary: Keith's tunnel vision leads the team directly into a trap, and getting out is going to be painful, if its even possible.
Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo 2k19 [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1554010
Comments: 8
Kudos: 239
Collections: Bad Things Happen Bingo





	Mistakes Were Made

**Author's Note:**

> The title is cheery but the content is not. Have fun.

It was his fault. 

Some of him wanted to blame Shiro, or Allura. Shiro was the one to appoint him leader, and Allura was the one to force him into it. A part of him even wanted to blame the Black Lion. 

But as much as he didn’t want to admit it, he had to face the facts; they’d been captured, they were probably all going to be killed, and it was all his fault for chasing after Lotor even when everyone told him not to. 

Keith was the one who flew them into Lotor’s trap, and now everyone was going to suffer for his mistake. 

He’d been separated from the others. His cell was small, much longer than it was wide, and a large portion of the opposite wall was some sort of screen or window. It allowed him to see another, bigger cell-- the one holding the other four Paladins. He was bound upright before it, hands chained over his head so that he wouldn’t move away from the view, which he feared was going to play into whatever torture Lotor had in store for them. 

Tilting his head back, Keith studied were his bonds were attached to the wall. He performed a few experiments, yanking down as hard as he could and letting all of his weight hang from them, trying to make them loosen, but it was useless. The cuffs were firmly locked into the metal of the cell, and Keith wasn’t going to be getting free any time soon. 

So he settled for watching the screen while trying to reach out to Black. It was hard-- their bond was still new, and Keith was reluctant. Their connection was weak. He couldn’t seem to connect to Red, either. 

The other Paladins seemed to be going through the same motions he had; testing their bindings, closing their eyes to attempt connections to their Lions. He couldn’t hear anything they said, but judging by their expressions, it wasn’t going well for them, either. 

Keith’s gut twisted with guilt. He had to get the others out of here. No matter what he had to do, he would do it. 

_ No matter what,  _ he swore to himself. 

At that moment the door to his cell opened, the sound making him jolt in surprise. On the other side of the screen the other Paladins jumped, too, and their narrow eyed glares told him their visitor wasn’t someone pleasant. 

“So,” said Lotor as he stepped into Keith’s cell. He wore an infuriatingly smug smirk, and right behind him was one of the generals. The one he’d saved from the Weblum, who now wouldn’t meet his eye. “You’re the new Black Paladin.”

Keith clenched his jaw and stared straight ahead, refusing to look at the Prince. Through the screen he saw that two of the other generals had entered the other cell, the big one and the disturbingly peppy one. 

“I’ve been studying Voltron’s movements for some time,” Lotor was saying. He walked smoothly into Keith’s line of sight and stopped, forcing him to look at him. “Your style of leadership is quite different, isn’t it? Frankly, I wasn’t impressed.”

“Fuck off,” Keith snarled on instinct. Lotor laughed. 

“Feisty. I suppose it makes sense for you to wear the red armor.”

Keith tried to focus on what was happening in the Paladins’ cell. The other two generals didn’t seem to be doing much, yet, but that wouldn’t last. He needed to figure out an escape plan. 

But the Prince was still talking, totally oblivious to Keith’s icy resistance. 

“I should thank you, really. I didn’t know that the Lions could switch their Paladins at will. Perhaps my father’s goal wasn’t as unattainable as I thought.”

Keith’s lips peeled back from his teeth. Like  _ hell  _ would he let Lotor put his grubby hands on any of the Lions. 

“Now then, pleasantries aside, let’s get down to business.” He reached out and grabbed Keith by the chin, forcing him to meet the Prince’s eyes with a pointed jerk. Keith saw their fate in those eyes-- Lotor was hungry for power. But to get that he needed his father’s empire to follow him. 

The captured Paladins of Voltron would give him the perfect opportunity. 

“Here’s what’s going to happen,” he said calmly, almost casually. “There are several cameras in this cell. On my word, Acxa will tell Zethrid and Ezor to start hurting your teammates.”

Every one of Keith’s muscles turned to iron, making Lotor’s smirk widen into a cruel grin. 

“And they won’t stop,” he continued, his voice dipping into a low, intimidating whisper, “Until you beg me for mercy.” He paused and tilted his head. “Do you care for them, Paladin?”

Keith’s breath caught in his throat, but he forced himself to answer, fearful of what would happen if he didn’t. 

“Yes.” Lotor’s sharp canines gleamed in the low light of the cell. 

“Then I suggest you give me a decent performance.” 

He released Keith and stepped back. Keith struggled to catch his breath-- he’d been expecting all manner of torture and pain, but not this. 

“Acxa,” said Lotor, and Keith’s head snapped up from where he’d dropped it. The Prince was standing to the side now, giving Keith an unobstructed view of the other Paladins, who had grown considerably more apprehensive in the last few minutes despite the lack of anything happening on their end. “Tell them they may begin.”

“No,” Keith said breathlessly. The adrenaline was beginning to flow as he watched Acxa head for the intercom on the wall, blood pumping in his ears and drowning out his own voice as he struggled to speak. “Wait, don’t--”

“You’ll have to do better than that,” Lotor scoffed. “Carry on, Acxa.” 

Acxa kept her face carefully blank as she pressed the button and spoke into the speaker. “Go ahead, Zethrid.” 

“No!” He lurched forward, uselessly trying to escape his bonds. “No, don’t touch them! Don’t you-- I swear to god I’ll--”

“That’s threatening, not begging,” said Lotor over his shouting. “Try again.”

Zethrid had already crossed the room. She now stood by Pidge, very pointedly not standing in front so that Keith could see as she gripped the Green Paladin’s wrist in one massive hand. Keith knew what she was going to do before she did it, and words poured from his throat. 

“No, please, please don’t hurt them--”

“Not good enough,” Lotor mocked, immediately followed by the sight of Pidge screaming as Zethrid crushed her wrist. Keith felt like he’d been kicked in the gut and was too distracted by the tears he could see running down Pidge’s cheeks to notice how Lotor nodded across the room to Acxa. 

“Ezor,” she said into the intercom. “Go to the next one.”

“I’m sorry,” Keith gasped. His throat was constricting around horrified, desperate sobs, making his voice waver and crack. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, please, they haven’t done anything wrong, it’s my fault, I’m the one that got us caught--”

Lotor gave him a pitying look that he couldn’t see through the sheen of tears, and didn’t call for a halt as Ezor grinned cheekily at the screen. Then, with one swift motion, she dislocated Lance’s knee. 

For a half second Keith was grateful he couldn’t hear the sounds the other Paladins made. Then he forgot about it in the frenzy that consumed him. 

“Stop, stop! I’m sorry, please, I’ll do whatever you want, I’ll do anything, just stop hurting them--” 

“Now we’re getting somewhere,” said Lotor with a wolfish grin. “But I don’t want you to  _ do  _ anything, Paladin. Acxa, next.”

The next person in line was Allura. She was watching Zethrid approach with an imperialistic glare, like she was daring the general to lay a hand on her, and that was all it took to push Keith over the edge. 

Allura was the Princess. She had been standing against Zarkon for literal millenia. He couldn’t let her suffer this-- this humiliation. He just couldn’t. 

“I’ll do it-- I’ll say whatever you want me to, I swear I will, I swear, just stop hurting them, please…” Tears spilled down his cheeks in streaks of fire. He kept talking, unable to tell if Lotor had been convinced and unwilling to take the risk that he wasn’t. Blinded by the tears, he didn’t see Lotor’s nod. But Acxa’s answer he did hear. 

“Stop.” 

A hollow sob of relief escaped him. 

“Well done,” said Lotor in his infinitely infuriating self importance. “We’ll write you a proper declaration of surrender for our arrival at Central Command, but that should do for now.”

Keith hung limply in his bonds, watching the tears drip off his cheeks and splatter on the floor. Defeat didn’t feel good, but he would bear it for as long as he had to. 

“Come along, Acxa. We have some broadcasting to do.” 

Keith kept his head down as the two exited the room. Then he raised his eyes to look through the screen, watching Zethrid and Ezor as they, too, took their leave. 

The moment they were gone Allura looked up, studying how their bonds were attached to the ceiling. Hunk seemed to be anxiously questioning Lance and Pidge. The former had a grimace on his face as he answered, probably attempting some kind of joke, but Pidge was still crying at the pain of hanging from a broken wrist. 

Suddenly, having wrapped her hands around the chains, Allura pulled herself upwards and flipped over to plant her feet on the ceiling. It only took a few seconds of pulling with her Altean strength before the chains tore free and she dropped, disappearing from Keith’s vision. 

That gave him an idea. He wasn’t as strong as an Altean, but he could at least give it a shot and make the escape easier. 

So, after a few deep breaths to steady himself, Keith set about replicating Allura’s maneuver. 

It took a few tries to get himself into the same position. Then it took a lot more attempts to loosen the chains, but eventually they tore loose with a shriek of metal. He landed flat on his back, all of the air driven from his lungs. His shoulders and wrists ached from supporting his weight, and the chains still dangled from each wrist, but those were problems for later. Problems for now: getting out. 

He spared a quick glance at the screen as he got to his feet and found that the Paladins had already disappeared from their cell, the ceiling torn and mangled from the removal of the chains. All he had to do now was find them. 

Luckily, Lotor didn’t know about Keith’s parentage. If he had, he might have disabled the DNA lock on the inside of the cell. 

The hallway he emerged into was utterly silent and empty. The other cell must’ve been somewhere else on the ship; the best plan would probably be to make his way to wherever they were keeping the Lions and hope to meet them there. 

It was difficult with all of the adrenaline still pumping, but Keith made himself stand still and concentrate on reaching out for Black. Their connection was fuzzy, but it should be enough to follow to where she was being held, just like he did when he first found Red. 

It didn’t take long for the hallways to form in his mind. A right, a left, another left, an elevator, two rights, and straight ahead into the hangars. He summoned his bayard to his hand and set off, chains still dangling from each of his wrists. 

The ship was… oddly peaceful. Keith moved as carefully as he dared without impacting his speed, but he hadn’t yet seen any drones or guards that he’d come to expect from Galra ships. He wasn’t sure if that was Lotor’s preference or if he just had that little backing from Zarkon, but it didn’t really matter. What mattered is that it made it that much easier for Keith to move towards his objective. 

Finally he made it to the last obstacle-- the long hallway that led to the hangar from two directions. He’d only taken a few steps down it before movement flashed in his periphery. There was an adjoining hallway he hadn’t seen, which was all he had time to notice before the shape slammed into him.

Keith hit the opposite wall hard. He was only dazed for a moment, but that was enough time for Acxa to grab his other shoulder and force his back to the wall. She was in the process of bringing up her blaster when he knocked her arm aside and swung wide at the side of her head. 

Acxa blocked the strike, but the chain still attached to Keith’s wrist whipped around and smacked her in the temple anyway. He followed up with a kick to the gut that made her stumble, and was fully prepared to proceed with the fight when a shout met his ears.

“Keith!”

His head snapped around. It was Allura, standing near the center of the hallway by the open hangar doors. Behind her he saw Hunk helping Lance through the door and Pidge scurrying after them, clutching her broken arm. 

That moment of distraction cost him. Acxa nailed him in the ribs, luckily hitting the armor and not breaking anything, but the hit still knocked the breath out of him. He barely got his bayard up in time to block her next swing.

“Go!” He shouted blindly to Allura, not even sure if she was still there or not. Then, with a burst of his jet pack, he drove Acxa against the other wall as hard as he could. There was a  _ crack,  _ then Acxa slumped to the floor, unconscious. He was pretty sure she was unconscious, at least. 

He didn’t have time to check. After taking a split second to seal his helmet he took off in the direction of the hangar, not allowing himself to look back. 

The hangar door was open, the other Lions already having flown out. Keith made his way to Black as quickly as possible, relieved to find her still waiting for him, and climbed aboard. 

Then he was shooting off into the stars, free and clear. 

* * *

That feeling of victory didn’t last long. The comms between the Lions were utterly silent, aside from Lance or Pidge’s occasional winces of pain. Keith certainly wasn’t going to speak up; he just led the group back to the Castle, his body growing ever heavier with fatigue and guilt as the adrenaline faded out. 

He wasn’t entirely sure how the others were going to react to him, but he knew it wasn’t going to be fun. The pit of dread building in his stomach kept him pinned to his seat for a moment after they made it back to the Castle, watching through Black’s eyes as the other Paladins left their Lions. Allura and Hunk hurried to help Lance to the infirmary and Pidge scurried after them, not sparing one glance in his direction. He wasn’t sure if he was relieved by that, or if it only made him more anxious. 

After a few more minutes he managed to get himself to stand up and leave the cockpit. His feet dragged on the floor as he made his way to his bunk, and he grimaced silently to himself at how the movement pulled on his bruised skin and aching muscles. The chains were still wrapped around his wrists, but he thought his luxite blade could cut through them. If not he’d just have to go to the lab when everyone was asleep and cut them off, somehow. 

His quarters were dark and cold when he reached them, the light from the hallway spilling inside and casting a long shadow across the floor. Keith shuffled inside and didn’t bother to turn the lights on as he set about his business. The room had always been bare, he’d never bothered to decorate, and now that emptiness felt mocking, echoing the thump of his heart back at him as if to accentuate how alone he was. 

_ Well,  _ he thought grimly to himself as he readied his blade,  _ it’s not like I don’t deserve it.  _

* * *

The four Paladins barged into the infirmary without ceremony. Coran immediately rushed over, already having prepared five pods for them, just in case. 

“Thank the Ancients,” he breathed out in relief as he pulled Allura close for a half hug, half examination for injuries. “When you lot disappeared, I thought you were all done for!”

“So did we,” grumbled Hunk with an irritated yank on the chains that still dangled from his wrists. Coran didn’t answer right away-- his eyes were jumping to each of their faces, one by one. Then his brow creased in worry. 

“Where is Number Four?” he asked, and Allura’s stomach twisted with bitter anger. She pulled away from him, biting the inside of her lip to keep her expression level, but not all the other Paladins made the same effort.

“Don’t know, don’t care,” Lance snapped, finally slumping into a seated position to take the pressure off his leg. 

“Lance,” said Pidge, but she didn’t sound like her heart was in it, and Lance merely scoffed as he began to yank his shoulder pads off. 

“We  _ told  _ him not to follow Lotor, we  _ told  _ him it was a bad idea, we  _ told  _ him it was a trap, but did he listen to us? No-o-o-o-o. Honestly, I respect the hell out of Shiro, but what the  _ fuck  _ was he thinking making  _ Keith  _ the Black Paladin?”

Allura couldn’t say she hadn’t been thinking along the same lines as Lance, but when she looked back to Coran, she was surprised to see him looking upset. Not upset in the way that the rest of them were, but confused upset. Confused, concerned, upset.

“You didn’t see?” All attention turned to him. 

“Didn’t see what?” asked Pidge, who was still cradling her broken wrist. The sight made Allura’s anger flare up for a moment, but it was promptly extinguished when she turned back to Coran’s worried expression. 

“Coran?” she prodded, and he swallowed nervously. 

“Just before the Lions reappeared on the radar, I picked up a signal.” He spoke slowly, and as his sentence ended, his eyes flicked over to the console in the center of the room. “I think it would be better to show you.”

So Hunk helped Lance back to his feet, and together the Paladins gathered around the console, the apprehension on each face growing with every tick it took for Coran to pull up the signal in question. 

There was a simultaneous gasp as the image of Keith’s face appeared on the screen. 

“It’s a video feed,” Coran explained. As soon as he hit the play button, Allura wished she hadn’t let him. 

The expression on Keith’s face was one of absolute anguish, tears painting his pale cheeks as his voice wrenched out of him in a crackling, painful jumble of words. In the babble Allura could make out  _ I’m sorry _ ,  _ my fault _ , and  _ stop hurting them.  _

“He could see us,” Pidge murmured in a horrified tone. “That’s why they were hurting us without asking any questions-- it wasn’t us they were trying to break.”

“Jesus,” whispered Lance. Hunk ran the back of his hand over his eyes, trying to disguise the tears filling his own eyes.

“Turn it off, Coran,” Allura said, and Coran did as she asked. 

For a moment they all just stood there in disbelieving silence. Allura had never seen Keith that emotional, that  _ desperate _ , before. Even after Shiro disappeared he kept his vulnerability private, and the only thing he showed to anyone else was anger. But now she knew that as angry as all of them were about the debacle of a mission that had occurred that day, none of them could possibly berate him more than he was already berating himself. 

Eventually, Allura stirred herself enough to speak. “Coran, get Lance and Pidge in their pods. Hunk, come with me to the lab so we can get these chains off. Then,” she gave a heavy, tired sigh, “Then I’ll go talk to Keith.”

Pidge took a step closer to her. She looked pale and exhausted, but there was still a sliver of determination in her eyes when she said, “Don’t yell at him, Allura.”

She managed the tiniest sliver of a smile. “Don’t worry,” she promised. “I won’t.” 

* * *

“Come on, Black.” Keith’s voice bounced and reverberated through the empty hangar, no matter how quiet he tried to be. He was back in his civilian clothes and sitting on the floor in front of the Black Lion, dwarfed by her size, trying every trick he could think of. But Black had remained unmoved. “You saw what happened out there-- you know I’m not good enough. You know I can’t do this. Pick someone else _ , please.” _

Black just sat there, eyes grey and blank, and Keith smacked his fist against his knee in frustration. 

The worst part was, she almost reminded him of Shiro. He couldn’t remember how many times he’d screwed up at the Garrison, how many times Shiro had to pull him out of the deep end, and how many times he refused to give up on him, no matter how often Keith tried to convince him to. 

He still had no idea what Shiro had seen in him. And now he would probably never know. 

The hiss of the door and the following footsteps echoed even louder than his voice had. Keith recognized the step as Allura’s and didn’t move, simply waiting as her steps counted down to whatever consequences were coming for him. 

A few feet away the steps halted. “Keith?”

He closed his eyes, clenching his hands into fists to stop the shaking, and said the only thing he could think of. 

“I’m sorry, Allura.”

There was a momentary pause, then the Princess took the last few steps and sank to the floor beside him, close enough for their shoulders to brush. Keith kept his eyes on Black’s paws. 

“We saw,” was all she said, and Keith’s throat tightened. 

“Saw what?” It was ridiculous, trying to pretend, but he didn’t know what else to do. 

“The video. What Lotor made you do.”

Keith instinctively ducked his head, avoiding Allura’s gaze. Damn it, he’d been hoping Lotor was going to wait until he got that official surrender back at Central Command, but he was realizing now that was a vain hope. Lotor was more adaptable than Zarkon had been-- he didn’t get what he wanted, so he used what he had. 

“I’m sorry,” he said again, which seemed to catch Allura by surprise. 

“Whatever for?”

He turned his head and stared at the opposite wall. Anything to avoid seeing the inevitable look of anger on Allura’s face. 

“It’s just-- we spent so much time building up the Coalition and now--” His voice cracked, forcing him to stop and try again, much to his chagrin. Allura was probably irritated enough without all of his dramatics and stuttering. “Now it’s all been… undermined. No one’s going to believe in Voltron after seeing that.”

“Yes they will,” said Allura with such utter confidence that it got Keith to finally look up. To his surprise, she was smiling. “We’ll make them.”

“I…” He didn’t know what to say. He’d been preparing for rage, for punishments, not for this. “I… um…”

Moving slowly, like Keith was a nervous cat, Allura reached over and lifted one of his hands from his lap, forcing the fingers to uncurl enough to accept hers. 

“Keith,” she began, and he tensed in anticipation. But she kept her voice low and even as she continued, “We all know that mistakes occurred today.”

Looking away again, he nodded. 

“And I’m not going to say that none of us were angry.”

He bit his tongue.  _ Here it comes.  _

“But we can all see that you’re trying. I understand-- leadership is difficult, even when you’ve been trained and you know what to do, which the majority of us do not. What’s important is that we’re all here and safe.”

Keith was speechless. Allura let him be, gave him a few moments to process that everything he’d been dreading wasn’t going to happen, then squeezed his hand and stood up, pulling him with her. 

“Come on,” she said with a soft smile. “Pidge said she wanted you to be there when she gets out of her pod.”

Keith followed. 


End file.
